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This is too good to pass up. In the open thread, I called attention to a tweet from the anchor of BBC World News America, Katty Kay, where she actually criticized the President for having too many white men in His cabinet.
How depressing is the photo accompanying this piece? NYTimes: Obama’s Remade Inner Circle Has an All-Male Look, So Far nyti.ms/UGK1Y8
— Katty Kay (@KattyKayBBC) January 9, 2013
That was yesterday. Today, Katty was on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, co-hosted by former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough (who went native after a while, sort of like Nick Robinson, but has been straying off the reservation for some time now) and Leftoid hack Mika Brzezinski. Now that she’s on national television, the highest- profile Beeboid in the US is dutifully defending the President against charges of sexism. Her contribution is right at the start of this video clip, then she rejoins the discussion after about 5:30 in. Notice the anger she displays. (Here’s a link in case the embedded clip doesn’t work for you.) Impartial or what?
Sure, the Morning Joe producers obviously asked Katty to speak up for the President in the debate, just like any producer would be trying to get a guest to take a stance on the issue of the day. That’s why she was brought in: to give an opinion. But what a joke. Yesterday, she was criticizing the President, today she defends Him. And what a defense: Last term, the President had women in high places, so it doesn’t matter if it’s back to an old boys’ network now. Classic.
Katty Kay: hypocrite, partisan hack, your national broadcaster’s representative in the US. Is she in violation of the BBC guidelines? Judge for yourselves (NB: Katty is technically one of those pay-my-corporation “freelancers”):
Public Speaking and Other Public Appearances
15.4.13
It is important that no public speaking commitments or other public appearances are seen to undermine the objectivity or integrity of the BBC or its content, or suggest BBC endorsement of a third party organisation, product, service or campaign.
Although freelance presenters of BBC programmes may gain a proportion of their non-BBC income from off-air public appearances, they must guard against appearances which undermine their on-air role. They should not allow the use of the BBC’s name or brands in connection with advertising for a public appearance. There should be no suggestion of a BBC connection or endorsement of the third party event or organisation, unless it is editorially appropriate and has been approved by the relevant head of department.
News and Current Affairs Staff, Global News and News Staff in the Nations
15.4.15
BBC News and Current affairs staff, BBC correspondents on non-staff contracts and freelances known primarily as presenters or reporters on BBC news and current affairs programmes, must remain impartial when speaking publicly or taking part in similar events, such as a public discussion or debate. They must not promote any political party, campaigning organisation or lobby group. They should not chair conferences which are a promotional exercise for a commercial company, that supports any political parties, or is one-sided on a matter of public policy, political or industrial controversy or any other ‘controversial subject’.
(UPDATED, see below the fold) On Wednesday’s open thread, DB posted a tweet from BBC journalist, Jude Machin, expressing her hope to wake up in the middle of the night to watch her beloved Obamessiah debate His enemy for the first time. The point DB was making is best expressed visually, so I’ll reproduce it here:
I’m going to set my alarm for 2am to watch the Presidential #debate on BBC News. I am. Honestly.
— Jude Machin (@judemachin) October 3, 2012
UPDATE: As you can see above, someone has forced a little impartiality on Jude after all. Awww. I’m currently having difficulty uploading the screenshot I took at the time, but fortunately DB took one and posted it in the comments below.
(UPDATE to above UPDATE: The above update was written after Machin changed the pic to one of herself holding what appeared to be an Olympic torch, but before the entire Twitter account was killed. I was referring here to the new profile avatar.)
Jude has gone all out in her devotion, it seems. So much for not doing anything stupid, eh, Ms. Boaden? Naturally, a fellow worshiper chimed in with an “Amen, sister!”
@judemachin Love your profile pic Jude!
— Leah Gooding (@LeahGooding) October 6, 2012
…prompting a response from the erstwhile “Obamamama”:
@leahgooding I am not very impartial when it comes to US politics! x
— Jude Machin (@judemachin) October 6, 2012
The sister worshiper is Leah Gooding, BBC Newsround presenter.
They’re all at it, and they don’t care about showing it in public. Ms. Gooding doesn’t have the requisite “views my own” get-out-of-bias free card that most of them do, but neither does she have the BBC logo. So she’s probably beyond the reach of the BBC guidelines.
Are these tweets proof of biased reporting/presenting on their own? No. But added all up, they create a profile of the very kind of echo chamber fellow Left-leaning BBC journalist, Kate Dailey, was warning against only yesterday. It has to affect BBC reporting on some level. If they all share the same approved thoughts anyway, it will happen naturally, without conspiracy or awareness.
Time for some more social media training courses, I think. Somebody should ask Helen Boaden if this is the kind of thing she was talking about when she asked staff to engage the brain before “rushing to communicate“.
UPDATE AGAIN: Below are the screenshots. I’ve left the above embeds as is, in order to show that Machin’s Twitter account has been sent down the memory hole. That’s why there’s no more profile pic. It’s possible she killed it once I told them I had screenshots. Another round of training is in order, I should think. At your expense.
Described on Twitter as “the most incestuous media love-in in history” and “an activists who’s who“, Paul Mason’s party to celebrate the launch of his new book “Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: the New Global Revolutions” ended in chaos last night.
SPLITTERS
Mason abandoned his own party and recommended that other factions do the same. An anarchic hardcore remained. Lefties, eh?
Here’s a flavour of the evening from the Guardian’s James Ball:
Is the UK’s NUJ developing its own more radical version of the now-disbanded left-leaning JournoList group from the US?
Thanks to BBC London journalist Jane Bradley (first seen on Biased BBC a couple of weeks ago) my attention was drawn to an event called Reclaim The Media which took place last night. Fresh from interviewing St Paul’s protesters for her employer, Jane asked yesterday if any of her colleagues would be attending the NUJ-backed meeting:
The link in that tweet goes to a website called Right To Work (“Save jobs. Stop the cuts. Defend public services.”) but the speaker list advertised there was a bit out of date. The actual line-up – apart from Pilger – included BBC NUJ rep Becky Branford, the NUJ’s “anarchist” president Donnacha Delong, and Gary McFarlane, Socialist Workers Party activist (and not, sadly, Gary McFarlane the Christian relationship counsellor sacked by Relate for refusing to give sex advice to gay couples. Now that would’ve been an amusing mix-up.)
Unfortunately for Jane, as with the Trafalgar Square demo a couple of weeks ago, she didn’t make it herself. But hey, she wanted to go and that’s good enough for radical cred at the BBC.
What did she miss? Well, according to one student journalist (not BBC – yet) who attended there was an exhilarating political vibe to the evening:
The same student said that they were getting a list together:
I wonder how many BBC journalists will sign up.
A little update to yesterday’s post. Here’s BBC Newcastle reporter Sarah Walton’s reply to BBC London News producer Jane Bradley on Saturday:
The love of lefty protest is no great shock, but I am a little surprised to discover that BBC journalists still hold Assange in such high regard. I guess it’s all part of displaying one’s radical cred.
Jane Bradley, producer at BBC London TV News, tweeting yesterday:
She’s your typical Guardian-reading BBC lefty, but don’t just take my word for it:
I notice that she groups the BBC journalists in with all the other lefties.
Also, check out Ros Ball from BBC Parliament. Gender politics is her thing. Likes – female Marxist historians on the BBC and mooncups. Dislikes – Tories and, er, Doris Day.
Whip crack-away!
